Gabrielle Petit: the remarkable resister

Gabrielle Petit was 23 when she was executed by the Germans. She had spent two
years helping soldiers cross the Dutch border

Resistance fighter Gabrielle PetitPhoto: TopFoto

1:05PM BST 04 Jul 2014

Of all the characters to have shaped Tournai’s legacy, few can boast a story as dramatic as that of local woman Gabrielle Petit, a resistance fighter who spent two years spying for the British Secret Service.

Still considered a heroine in Belgium, she was aged just 23 when she was executed by the Germans during the First World War.

She was an unlikely activist. Raised in a Catholic school, she found employment as a saleswoman in Brussels. The outbreak of war, however, and the German occupation saw her volunteer for the Belgian Red Cross. In this role she helped smuggle her injured fiancé, soldier Maurice Gobert, across the Dutch border to rejoin Allied forces.

It proved to be the start of prolonged espionage activity. Having picked up valuable information during Gobert’s escape, she briefed the British Secret Service on the movements of the Kaiser’s army. Recognising her value, the British then gave her official training.

As well as aiding more soldiers in crossing the Dutch border, she helped to distribute a resistance newspaper and assisted with an underground mail service known as Le Mot du Soldat.

Petit met her demise in 1916 after confiding in a German posing as a Dutchman. Famously, she refused to divulge information about her co-conspirators and went in front of a firing squad in April 1916.

When her story came to light after the war, she was granted a state funeral. Today, her statue stands on Place Saint-Jean in Brussels, and a square in Tournai bears her name.